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Attention, grocery shoppers: Alec Baldwin is back on the air

January 4, 2012 | 10:31
am

Alec Baldwin's on-again, off-again relationship with a New York grocery store chain is on again after the company, which had pulled the actor's TV ads, said Wednesday it would begin running them again in response to complaints from customers.

Ironically, it was also customer complaints that led to the withdrawal of the ads by Wegmans Food Markets, which is based in upstate New York. Wegmans stopped airing the actor's TV commercials after he was booted from an American Airlines jet on Dec. 6, an incident that led some shoppers to demand he be dropped as a Wegmans spokesman.

But it quickly became clear that Baldwin has more fans than foes, Wegmans spokeswoman Jo Natale said in a statement posted on the company's website and emailed to the Los Angeles Times. "We regret ending the Alec Baldwin holiday commercials one week earlier than planned in response to a couple of dozen complaints. We have decided to run the commercials again, effective immediately," Natale said.

"Clearly, many more people support Alec, as evidenced by the hundreds and hundreds of tweets, emails, and phone calls we have received," the statement added.

Baldwin became a spokesman for Wegmans in 2010 after mentioning on national television that his mother, who lives in upstate New York, is a loyal customer.